Madelyn's Screening Results

It is official now - I have a very smart little girl! I've been telling you that (whenever you would listen), but now it is written on paper. She passed her prekindergarten screening with flying colors. She received a 47 out of 64 and at her age all she needed was a 14. This doesn't impress me as much as the fact that a 5.6 year old (what she would be if she took it two years from now without starting kindergarten) needs a 37. Wow!

So I'm going to try and write down my observations of the visit just so I remember them later. When we walked in, I was given a stack of papers to fill out and Madelyn was given a blank sheet of paper to draw a picture of herself on. She refused to draw a picture of herself and drew a spaceship with a little boy inside of it instead. I thought to myself, "oh boy, she's already rebelling the rules... although her picture is very creative... ." Then we went to a room when her vision and hearing would be tested. She was enjoying herself and the woman guiding us through and passing the vision test *until* the woman asked her to put on some glasses that had one of the eyes covered over. This was to test the eyes individually, but she was *not* going to do it! For some reason she was scared of it and wanted nothing to do with it. Then once she was worked up she didn't want to even cover her own eye or anything. So we moved on to the hearing tests. She was apprehensive but did fine with that and asked for a hug from the woman, who seemed a little taken back by the request. So we went back to the vision test and she would only let me cover her eye if Pinky (her bear she brought) had his eye covered too. It's a deal! So we got through that! Both tests done and passed.

Next was the academic test - a series of questions supplemented with colored blocks and flashcards. I tried really hard to just sit back and watch Madelyn during this time, rather than getting involved and either skewing it or getting her confused. The teacher (T) started out by asking her to copy a few simple shapes and I was blown away that she did them really well. Granted they weren't exactly the same, but she had the right shape and the same number of strokes! Next, T asked her to write her name.... uhh... we have been working a little on that, but not much. She made an M-looking shape and said "that's it!" T then stacked up some small blocks and asked her to stack up some of her own to look the same. Mad flew through the first 4 stacking patterns no problem, but on the fifth she did something wrong to begin with and when she got to the top she didn't have enough blocks. I thought for sure she would give up, but she didn't! She looked at it hard and figured it out! I was really impressed by her persistence and problem-solving! There were lots of questions/tasks like this and she didn't get everything right, but did really well over all. Something that surprised me was how confident she was throughout the whole session, even if her answers were wrong. T asked her about some letters (which Mad has not been very excited to learn at home) and she would answer with a *very confident* wrong answer! (She did get one correct - G - because it is the first letter in Greyson.) I found this interesting because it is different than what I see at home. At home, I see a little girl that only wants to participate in something if she thinks she already knows or understands it. Hmmm..... makes me wonder how I can get the confident responses to new activities or questions.

Overall, I was very impressed and proud of my little girl's "performance". She is *officially* a smart little girl! No big concerns, no big issues to mention. I was surprised that the screening was very skewed to physical and academic tests. I didn't see any behavioral or emotional screening. I see them as just as important, if not more, especially for this age. Oh well, I guess that is mine and Ben's job!